Black swt cats

[Pamela Weatherbee]

Hello

July 3 I saw 2 Black swt caterpillars on Rue. I had planted a large patch Rue Ruta graveolens, to attract Giant swt. They were about one inch long. I am surprised they are feeding on Rue as I think it has strong chemicals. I have not seen any giants yet. I will keep track of these cats hopefully. Pam Weatherbee Williamstown

[donald adams]

Hi Pam et al:

 

I’ve been advised by butterfly friends in the southern US, that Black swt cats there do well on Cicuta maculata aka Water Hemlock!!

 

Don Adams

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[Pamela Weatherbee]

Hi Don Thanks a lot. They look fat and healthy.They like a little poison I guess. Will that give the butterflies protection? Like the Monarchs. I am going to check the Water Hemlock. Thanks. Pam Weatherbee Williamstown

On Saturday, July 4, 2020, donald adams <banker...@comcast.net> wrote:

Hi Pam et al:

 

I’ve been advised by butterfly friends in the southern US, that Black swt cats there do well on Cicuta maculata aka Water Hemlock!!

 

Don Adams

 

From: mas...@googlegroups.com [mailto:masslep@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Pamela Weatherbee
Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2020 9:53 AM
To: MassLep Leps <mas...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [MassLep] Black swt cats

 

Hello

July 3 I saw 2 Black swt caterpillars on Rue. I had planted a large patch Rue Ruta graveolens, to attract Giant swt. They were about one inch long. I am surprised they are feeding on Rue as I think it has strong chemicals. I have not seen any giants yet. I will keep track of these cats hopefully. Pam Weatherbee Williamstown

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[Elise Barry]

There is a pretty comprehensive on-line list of host plants 'Larval Hostplant List for Butterflies of the Washington, DC’. It was compiled by Mark Etheridge and last updated in 1998. He used good resources. The bibliography is below. It includes both plants under discussion as host plants for the Black Swallowtail, as well as many more. This is the link:

http://polygoniabrewing.com/plantlist/Plantlist.html

Elise Barry

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (1971) COMMON WEEDS OF THE UNITED STATES, Dover Publications, Inc., New York.

Brown, Melvin L. and Russell G. Brown (1984), THE HERBACEOUS PLANTS OF MARYLAND,  Port City Press, Inc., Baltimore, Md.

Brown, Melvin L. and Russell G. Brown (1972), THE WOODY PLANTS OF MARYLAND, Port City Press, Baltimore, Md.

Cromartie, William J. and Dale F. Sweitzer (1993), "Biology of the Rare Skipper, Probleme bulenta (Hesperiidae), in Southern New Jersey", Journal of the Lepidopterist's Society, Vol.47, No.2, 16 June 1993.

Glassberg, Jeffrey (1993), BUTTERFLIES THROUGH BINOCULARS: A FIELD GUIDE TO BUTTERFLIES IN THE BOSTON-NEW YORK-WASHINGTON REGION, Oxford University Press 

Harvill, A.M., Jr., et al  (1992), ATLAS OF THE VIRGINIA FLORA III, Virginia Botanical Associates, Route 1, Box 63, Burkeville, Virginia, 23922.

Newcomb, Lawrence (1977) NEWCOMB'S WILDFLOWER GUIDE, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Toronto, London.

Opler, Paul A. and George O. Krizek (1984) BUTTERFLIES EAST OF THE GREAT PLAINS, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London.
 
Scott, James A.(1986), THE BUTTERFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA: A NATURAL HISTORY AND FIELD GUIDE, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.

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[Josh]

Don and all - it is not just in the southern US that cats of this species eat Water Hemlock. Here are a couple which I photographed doing so several years ago right here in Massachusetts, specifically at Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area, Hampshire County, June 12 2011: 

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51938095 

Cheers,

JSR

Joshua S. Rose, Ph.D.
Amherst, MA

https://www.facebook.com/opihi

Vice-president, Hampshire Bird Club

https://hampshirebirdclub.org/

Northeast Chapter head, Dragonfly Society of the Americas

https://www.dragonflysocietyamericas.org/northeastdsa

Citizen science pages:

http://bugguide.net/user/view/2399

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/opihiman

https://ebird.org/profile/MTk1MTQw/US-MA 

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[donald adams]

Josh and all;

 

Yes, I became aware ‘our’ Blacks would accept this when my friend in Dixieland sent me a piece in trade for a piece of our Comfrey (Symphytum). Comfrey is a very interesting plant besides being a host for PLs and a great nectar plant for Bumblebees and Hummingbirds.  That having been said, it’s interesting to note for Water Hemlock that, although all the plants principals are poisonous to some  degree, it’s the roots that are VERY BAD.

 

Don Adams

[Pamela Weatherbee]

Hi al

Thanks for all your collective knowledge. I bony Sara the cats now, perhaps they have gone to the chrysalis stage.

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[Pamela Weatherbee]

Sorry about that. I think I meant to say I don't see them anymore. My brain is baked. Pam Weatherbee williamstown

[fsm...@aol.com]

I thought you were just wishing them good evening [buona sera]. After all, your name does end in a vowel.

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[Sharon Stichter]

I’m rather late responding to this discussion, but I was delighted to see Josh Rose’s report and photo of a Black Swt caterpillar on water hemlock.  And I was glad to hear from Don Adams that in southern states, and sometimes here too, Black Swt still uses this native plant.

 

(Black Swt’s use of rue is a new one to me. I think we need more info to see if it’s a viable larval host.  I did know about lovage, but thought it was used only further north from here. )

 

In 2010 in www.butterfliesofmassachusetts.net  I wrote that when Thaddeus Harris, the first scientist to work on New England butterflies, was writing in the 1820’s and later, the black swallowtail was already known mainly as an agricultural species, its plant hosts being almost solely non-native garden and field species -- parsley, dill, carrot, and queen annes lace.  Harris and later Scudder (1899) both reported that the original native hosts were water hemlock (Cicuta maculata), water parsnip (Sium cicutaefolium), and a few other wet meadow species, including the non-native poison hemlock, but they thought the butterfly no longer used these plants.  I wrote that there was only 1 modern report from Mass. that I knew of (by Madeline Champagne in 2007 in Dartmouth) of Black Swallowtail seen laying eggs on any of the native wetland plants that were formerly its larval hosts. 

 

So Josh’s 2011 observation at Fitzgerald Lake is only the second in MA that I’ve heard of – but there may well be many more instances of Black Swallowtail using these interesting native plants!  Something to look for. And for raisers to test how well they survive on them versus say dill or parsley.

 

 

Sharon Stichter

Newbury

 

 

 

From: Josh

Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2020 3:27 PM

To: MassLep

Subject: Re: [MassLep] Re: Black swt cats

 

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